case studies
Exeter House School
Exeter House School has been involved with 5x5x5=creativity for three years.
Educator: Lynne Gould
Artist: Catherine Lamont Robinson
Mentor: Jo Stevens
Beyond Words
The most inspiring aspect of working alongside the children at Exeter House as an artist was, despite the complexity of physical, social and emotional factors they were dealing with, they indulged me as I, clumsily, came to understand a little of their motivations and interests. A close second, was the privilege of working with a staff who are so whole-heartedly committed to the well-being and development of each child. It was a joy to work in the atmosphere of an extended family full of love and laughter as well as poignant moments.
Reflecting upon the particular circumstances of this research, one of Helen Keller's comments about her childhood keeps coming to mind: ‘Sometimes I feel like a music-box with all the play shut inside.'
As a team, Lynne, Andrea, Brigidett, Viv and I were intent upon observing flickers of interest and looking for every opportunity to help each child to open their particular box - if they so wished!. I have chosen to briefly mention how two of the less outgoing children blossomed over the period of the 5x5x5 research. Both children fall into Lynne's definition of initially ‘non-participant' - observing from side-lines.
Taylor
At first, Taylor seemed to view me with suspicion and frequently retreated to his favourite place - a large, indoors sand-tray where he maoeuvered a variety of diggers and trucks adeptly. He became increasingly inventive with materials such as ice, coloured-sand and salt etc. as we supported this preoccupation. Taylor often encircled himself with train-track etc. playing alone by choice.
Early on in the research, Viv introduced a large roll of dark-coloured fabric, as it began to unravel, travelling across the carpet one of the children shouted ‘River!' and so the session unfolded, various children held one end of the fabric and enjoyed changing the rhythm of the ‘water' whilst others threw various objects ‘into the water'. Taylor was steadily advancing during this provocation and when another child shouted ‘run-run!' he headed towards one of the soft toys representing the ginger-bread man in the familiar nursery-rhyme and threw it in ‘the river'.
During the proceedings Lynne noticed that Taylor was not realizing that the ‘ginger-bread man was still there when concealed from view and together with a large furry-glove to conceal, then expose, the toy she helped him to forge this concept. It was a privilege to be present at such a significant moment and directly observe a set of connections being grasped. Taylor reinforced his new understanding by running around the room dropping the unfortunate ginger-bread man into all sorts of locations - then gleefully revealing him again. The fact that such a variety of materials were freely available to the children over a prolonged period of time facilitated this playful engagement.
Another occasion when Taylor moved beyond his usual comfort zones was when I was on the floor drawing the movement of water on a large sheet of paper and he abruptly left his chair, took the felt-pen from me and continued the mark-making. It seems that that Taylor's observation of large physical gestures are a trigger to creative interaction. The following session, he became involved in painting in a similar manner and later, again after a period of acute surveillance, Taylor followed the cue of combining scrap materials to construct an unconventional house - using every adult available as his technician.
Interestingly, Taylor's confidence in mirroring has increased dramatically and is evident on a day to day basis. My first encounter with this development was when listening to a very animated child yet simultaneously hearing the same child call my name repeatedly. Luckily Lynne assuaged my fears of insanity and pointed out that Taylor, seated quietly nearby with his back to me, was mimicking the other child's voice so convincingly. Taylor often presents caricatures of his peer group and staff by gestures and key words at home - much to his mother's amusement.
Harvey
Harvey is now one of Taylor's favourite peers to mimic whereas Taylor now has a few words, Harvey has yet to communicate in this manner.
Harvey, like Taylor was initially very much an observer of the 5x5x5 - mayhem - strictly from the edges. However, when the more confident children retreated from the central action only then would Harvey suddenly slip into position like a little ghost, I was often quite startled to find that he was in a roll of fabric at my feet or enclosing himself in a length of plastic netting.
Lynne had observed that Harvey was fascinated by his own reflection and Viv mentioned that Harvey had only recently discovered his own shadow. The quality of Harvey's observation is intense and hard to define, it is almost as if he watches with his whole body - a multi-sensory capacity I have only previously been aware of with severely visually-impaired children. These factors triggered a series of sessions where Harvey, separate from his peers, initially mirrored my body movements, then quickly took the lead and led the dance - quite literally.....at the end of the first body-mirroring session with Andrea and I, Harvey took each of us in turn, by the hands and very gently and rhythmically, rotated us in a circle around him. Andrea and I were very moved as it felt that Harvey was saying a special thank you to us.
During the research we built upon Harvey's interest in shadows and reflections using mirrors, coloured-gels, torches, projections etc. Also, Harvey habitually re-arranged aspects of his immediate environment - tables, chairs etc. no object was too heavy to attempt shifting..... At first I had been keen to encourage Harvey to include specific art materials however, he soon showed me my limited viewpoint and demonstrated how he was drawing with shadows, whether re-positioning slatted plastic chairs or an upturned car-tyre so that the sun created dramatic patterns on the ground or tracing a pattern with his finger down the damp surface of a slide on a winter's day.
Harvey and Taylor are beginning to gravitate toward each other - after a period of intense observation from a distance - this could be a very mutually rewarding alliance. Both children have become more confident, exploratory and assertive.
As I gained Harvey and Taylor's trust and they became more experimental, the need to model as a trigger diminished and I fell into the supporting role of technician, furniture remover, dance-partner as appropriate - the children directing the creative process.
I feel that both Taylor and Harvey's journey from mirroring to free improvisation underlines the need to establish an empathetic, one to one collaboration between adults and children initially. Taylor's actions highlight this. For example, Mosese, of the other children had become very distressed and was sobbing uncontrollably. As we adults all tried to comfort him and work out a way to help, Taylor had backed into the corner of the room watching anxiously.
Moments later when Mosese was calmly sitting on a sofa next to me, crisis over, I suddenly felt a little bum squeezing in the other side and was surprised to see it was Taylor - who remained in that position for some time. I later mentioned this to Lynne and she suggested that Taylor may have come to check I was all right and give what support he could after observing the heart-wrenching episode with Mosese - she explained that despite Taylor's seeming withdrawal he has developed an acute sheep-dog like rounding up tendency and is always aware if one of his group is missing or out of sorts - I am privileged to be one his flock now!
The nature of this setting is such that the majority of the children are slowly but surely integrating their emotions, thought-processes and physical responses. Therefore, allowing each child to initiate and develop their unique dialogue with us as adults has been the key to opening out and extending their individual ways of interacting with the world.
I am exploring how the physical act of mirroring seems to trigger such a rich set of responses, also monitoring the process from modeling, mirroring to free improvisation. Ollie, one of the most confident children moved through all three stages in his first introduction to clay - causing hilarity in the base-room by modeling a large pair of clay lips and spontaneously placing them over his mouth.
Catherine Lamont-Robinson, June 2007
